98RON

I'm always (anorak firmly ON) quite intrigued by the conflicting opinions as to how best to run an engine in. At the two ends of the scale are the 1000 miles >6K rpm and then slowly introducing VTEC over the NEXT 1000 miles versus the 'drive it like ya stole it' from Day One. And everything in between.

Lots of the talk about the potential disadvantages of the 'drove it like ya stole it' from Day One approach centres around the fact that whilst the engine might well be a bit quicker there is also an increased chance that it will catastrophically fail/blow at a relatively premature stage. I don't think there is any doubt that the vast majority of dealer ex-demo S2Ks will see quite a lot of VTEC action from Day One and are, as such, run in more towards the 'drive it like ya stole it' from Day One school of thought. (Moreover, they will also likely on occasion have NOT been warmed through properly before VTEC-ing during their stint as demos.) Contrastingly, most cars owned privately from new will tend to be ran in much more carefully i.e. as per Honda's recommendations or even more carefully still. This got me thinking about trying to find out if dealer ex-demo S2K engines blow up more often than cars owned privately from new. I know that plenty here have had engines blow up at 60K miles or earlier and found myself wondering whether or not there was any relatively clear association between dealer ex-demos and premature catastrophic engine failure. Hence the above poll: it might not be the best thought out but it might nonetheless be in some way indicative/interesting IF it transpires that most premature engine failures have occurred with dealer ex-demos (which FWIW I personally doubt...).

98

(EDIT: I can't edit the poll and I've cocked up because any voters can only tick one category.... neither can I delete it. BOLLOX! Please feel free to delete this poll/post and I'll re-do it when I'm fully awake and not under the influence... apols all.)